Sports Reporter

Fond farewell: Greg Inglis said goodbye to the Australian Jillaroos at Sydney Airport on Tuesday. Photo: Ben Rushton

When the women's match at this season's All Stars clash was bumped from the main curtain-raiser to the first game of the day, Greg Inglis led a protest by asking the players on to the field after full-time in the main event.

Now Inglis wants a women's match to be played before an NRL game in next season's Women in League round.

Inglis publicly raised the idea on Tuesday as he helped NRL chief executive Dave Smith farewell the Australian Jillaroos on their trip to the Women's World Cup in England.

''We have these breast cancer rounds and these Women in League rounds, but we really need to showcase the talent on the night and I would like to see the women perform before one of our matches,'' Inglis said.

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A sign of how strongly the South Sydney star feels about the women's game is that he attended the function at Sydney Airport on his day off to offer support to the players for a second time within months.

After initially being listed as the main curtain-raiser to the NRL All Stars match at Suncorp Stadium in February, the women's game was demoted when officials decided the under-16s clash should be the penultimate fixture - a move that angered Inglis.

''I just felt that you do all this stuff in the NRL but then we don't do anything to embrace and promote their talent on the big stage,'' he said. ''It is the first game of the season for the NRL so there is no better way to do that than put them before the All Stars game instead of pushing them back to early in the day when there is only 20 people in the grandstand. I wasn't trying to shove it in the NRL's face but I just wanted them to be aware that I was here to support the girls no matter what and that is why I grabbed the girls after our game and took them out on to the field.''

Smith agreed more needs to be done to support the women's game but the players in the Jillaroos squad were appreciative that for the first time their trip to the World Cup was fully funded. ''The support that we have got from the NRL means that finances haven't come into it and this time we are able to take our best squad because girls haven't pulled out for those sort of reasons,'' Jillaroos captain Karyn Murphy said. ''The preparation has been great, we have had quite a few camps now and I am very confident.''

Vice-captain Tahnee Norris said New Zealand were the team to beat after winning all three previous World Cups but the Jillaroos' focus was on their opening match against England at Dewsbury on Friday. ''They are going to be tough because they are playing on home soil so we just need to concentrate on that and then we come up against the Kiwis about a week after that,'' Norris said.

Smith, who will attend the Jillaroos' second match against France at Featherstone next Monday, said women and girls had the fastest-growing participation rates in the game.

''I think it is a really important part of our game and we want to get the foundations right so that we have got pathways for women, for girls, for coaches, for referees - we want wider participation,'' he said.

''We want wider participation and we are very committed to that. Greg Inglis made the comment after talking to the other [NRL] players about how committed everybody is to making sure that our girls are a success, and to see our women go off and represent us in the World Cup and hopefully bring back the World Cup is phenomenally exciting.''

Meanwhile, Souths veteran Roy Asotasi has announced he will leave the NRL at season's end to join English club Warrington. The 31-year-old front-rower had signed a two-year deal with the Wolves from 2014, Souths said on Tuesday.

Asotasi has played 206 first-grade games since making his NRL debut in 2002 - 122 for South Sydney. Rabbitohs chief executive Shane Richardson said Asotasi kick-started the club's ''revolution'' when he arrived in 2007.

3 comments so far

Cant believe Im saying this but good on him. Hate him but this is bloody good stuff Greg thanks

Commenter

SweetCheeks

Date and time

July 03, 2013, 1:05AM

Well done Greg - you are a leader in the making and one for all

Commenter

Drkaytime

Date and time

July 03, 2013, 9:41PM

Well done Greg. The NRL deserves a slap on the back the head. I've always thought the Women in League round was alittle condescending to women. It's all about Mum washing the jerseys, running the pie shop, cutting up oranges, wearing pink and (importantly) women's health issues. Here we have the Australian Jillaroos - the national womens's Rugby League team - and probably only two out of ten people know they exist. Can't remember ready much in the media, or the Big League. Nothing for memory on any of the TV league shows. But then, they're only women playing a man's game. Gold star to you Greg for highlighting what the media won't.